Description: This starts after a scene between Megumi and Lykaio, where Lykaio is trying to impress upon Megumi the importance of filling her role in the nature of things. Talia was stalking Megumi.. and decided Lykaio would be interesting to play with.
Lykaio watches Megumi stalk off, and scratches his head. "...It's so weird, talking with mortal girls who don't worship you. I don't get her at all."
There's a faint rustle, and a light thump, as Talia lands on the sidewalk behind Lykaio. She'd originally intended to track Megumi to deal with the loose end from their previous encounter.. But overhearing the conversation caused her to redirect her attention. Having abandoned her concealment, she takes a few purposeful steps towards Lykaio. "A word." It's a command, not a request.
Lykaio turns immediately at the thump and rustle, raising one hand - then blinks, staring at Talia for a brief moment - he doesn't seem to get the tone she's taking with him. Still, he smiles after a moment. "Certainly."
There's a few more moments as Talia looks over Lykaio, taking in the sight. She even takes a moment to step around him, examining him from all angles, but making no overtly threatening moves. Finally, she remarks in her emotionless voice, face as flat as the building walls, "Tell me of your purpose."
Lykaio remains still, moving his head to watch her as she moves around and raising an eyebrow slightly, but otherwise remaining still. He smiles again at her question. "I wish for the Gods to take their place in the rightful order of the world."
There's no visible reaction in Talia to indicate she heard, understood, or cared about Lykaio's response, just more of the overt analysis. There's another pause and then Talia asks in the same tone, "What place do you see the gods keeping in the order?"
Lykaio blinks, a bit taken aback by this lack of response, then smiles again, soldiering on bravely into the emotionless void. "Well... to rule over them from afar, of course. To forbid certain things from taking place. To be worshipped and respected, and in return protect their worshippers."
This time Talia is looking Lykaio in the eyes as he replies, allowing it to be known she's listening with her body language .. although her face remains just as inert as before. There's less of a delay this time before she continues her questioning. "What should be forbidden? From what must they be protected?"
"From themselves. Mortals do not govern themselves very well, they constantly struggle between eachother and to get to the top of the heap. With Gods... well, no mortal army can stand before a powerful God, so none would try. They would also know that replacing a God was an impossibility." Lykaio pauses, then shrugs a bit, grinning. "Further than that...? I don't know. Some of these things will be decided by the Gods when they rule, I don't have the power or the wisdom to know the specifics or enforce them."
This time there's an immediate interrogative from Talia, "Are you not a 'God'? How can you lack the necessary wisdom if your natural place is over the mortals?" She takes half a step forward as she speaks, her expression becoming harder as her eyes narrow.
Lykaio raises an eyebrow, but doesn't seem that intimidated by this. "Just because you're a God, doesn't mean you're perfect. And all Gods are not meant to rule. Some are meant to serve greater Gods, some are meant as messengers. Even under Gods, life won't become perfectly happy for everyone. But it will be *better*. And that's worth working for."
Talia's gaze.. well, it doesn't quite soften, but it becomes less hard by virtue of returning to its neutral state. Talia begins circling around Lykaio again, but this time more slowly, more purposefully. She continues moving as she speaks, and then through Lykaio's reaction, whatever that may be. "What, then, is a 'God'?"
"In the obvious sense...? Someone with an abnormal ability, who is naturally more powerful than mortals." Lykaio raises a finger, causing a minature spark of lightning to travel between the ground and it for a moment in a bright flash of light, and grins. "Lightning runs through my body, thunder comes at my call. But... there are other ways they are similar too. A lust for worship burns in many, thus the prevalence of fighting in Howard's Colliseum even though there are better ways for people so powerful to gain money." He pauses. "...Incidentally, who are you?"
The slow circling continues, and there's no visible reaction to Lykaio's small demonstration. Talia finally stops after the counter-question, facing him directly. She narrows her eyes again, and leans towards Lykaio slightly, although not getting too close. "Is arrogance a natural shared trait in 'Gods', or are you remarkable in that respect even amongst your peers?" She takes several steps back, leaning against a nearby building as she waits for a response. Her expression is still more intent than normal, but she lets her emotion, such as it is, be carried by her posture. Disdain.
Lykaio doesn't even seem to notice the disdain, still smiling cheerfully. "I'm better than mortals. I'm also weaker than many gods. I know my place in the world." He pauses, then shrugs. "So, I think I'm better than most people in the world, because I am. Is that arrogance?"
The response is simple and to the point. "It is if you're wrong." Talia gives a faint shake of her head, allowing disapproval to show through the motion. Crossing her arms, Talia looks to the sky, seeming to allow her attention to drift.
"You can argue against anything with 'It is if you're wrong.'. That doesn't make it a good argument, though." Lykaio stretches his arms over his head for a long moment, then drops them to his side and smiles easily. "Still. You seem like someone who's learned how to fight, at least. I am a little curious as to your views?"
There's another moment of sky-gazing before Talia turns back to Lykaio, giving him her attention once again. ".. my view .." She looks at Lykaio with the most intense expression yet, the greatest deviation from a dead mask. "You have the burden of proof." She gestures with one hand, palm facing the sky. "Claim." She gestures with the other hand in the same way. "No evidence." There's a smile, and it's not a nice one. She completes her display by gesturing with both hands towards Lykaio, stating in a low tone, "Arrogance."
Lykaio blinks, staring at Talia for a long moment, then laughs. "I'm not going to call down lightning in a crowded street, if that's what you mean. If you'd care to move to some... more secluded area?" He raises an eyebrow.
Talia blinks once, then shakes her head. "You.. don't know." Her tone reveals a small amount of surprise, but that quickly is set aside. Talia walks to the middle of the street, amongst traffic. Casually weaving between the vehicles, she draws her shotgun. In a short motion she's loaded, racked, and fired the weapon into the air, drawing the attention of everyone nearby.
In short order, the cars stop passing, and all the civilians back away, giving Talia undivided attention. Far enough to be out of the way, close enough to see what happens next. Turning to Lykaio, Talia smirks. "This is southtown. Everywhere is an arena."
Lykaio blinks, then grins. "Oh. A city of Gods... guess they'd be used to that." He inclines his head a bit to Talia. "Thanks for clearing an area for me." And with that, he places his hands together in a prayer-like position, then thrusts them downwards slightly, electricity crackling around his body. There's a few faint pulses of light in the air around him, then a sudden bright flash, and three will-o-the-wisp like orbs float around him, electricity occassionally arcing between them and their creator.
He pauses in a slightly theatrical manner, then plucks them one by one from the air, and places them to hover a couple of inches over the ground in a triangle. He then places his hand in the center of the triangle. He closes his eyes, and electrical energy crackles around his hand, the orbs arcing more and more energy into it. Finally, he presses his hand against the ground, and the electricity dissapears into the ground.
For a moment, nothing happens. Then lightning flashes repeatedly from the sky, striking several feet away from his hand, causing thunder to rock the skies for a moment.
As a measure of caution, since she isn't sure what exactly Lykaio has in mind, Talia steps back to give room for the demonstration. She watches his actions with intensity, and doesn't flinch at the final result. Instead she shakes her head again, looking off to the crowd for no other reason than to redirect her gaze from Lykaio.
Of course, the civilians are quite impressed, but Talia's disdain is more obvious than before. She takes a breath, exhales. There's a moment she spends swapping out some shells in her weapon, then she looks back to Lykaio. "Mortals can do that." There's a faint shrug, then she adds, "Try a moving target." With that, she raises the weapon towards Lykaio, giving him the opportunity to make the first move.
Lykaio rises to his feet, and rolls his eyes. "Mortals can not do that. *Maybe* with enough equipment, with enough time, with enough knowledge. But not with bare hands, and not spontaneously in a couple of minutes." The orbs rise up as well, hovering around their master.
He stares straight into Talia's eyes. "...Are you *sure* about this? I can't always hold my power back perfectly, and I'm honestly not sure how much you can take." He seems to already guess at the answer, however, as he's beginning to glow with energy.
COMBATSYS: Lykaio has started a fight here.
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Lykaio 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Lykaio focuses on his next action.
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Lykaio 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Talia has joined the fight here.
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Talia 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Lykaio
Shaking her head, Talia makes her final comment before centering her concentration on combat entirely. "If you hold back, you disrespect my efforts, and undermine your point if you fail. Do not hold back." This, too, is a command. That said, Talia bursts into motion. Instead of firing her weapon, she charges towards Lykaio. Just as she is reaching what would be melee range, she darts to one side, holding her shotgun with one hand as if it were a staff instead of a firearm. With her empty hand, she jabs two fingers towards a pressure point on Lykaio's shoulder, a move intended to disrupt fine motor control for a brief moment. At the same time, her stance shifts to a stable position intended to maintain consistent distance between herself and her opponent, if possible.
COMBATSYS: Talia successfully hits Lykaio with Sleight of Hand.
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Talia 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Lykaio
Lykaio gives off a bright flash of light as Talia closes in in an attempt to blind her, but she strikes him nevertheless. He stutter steps back, and rubs his shoulder, frowning. "I'm not the sort of guy to go all-out against a woman...."
With those words, he rushes towards Talia, almost seeming to teleport from the flashes of light that get closer and closer together. And when he closes in, when she's hopefully blinded, he punches at her stomach with one of his electrical orb in his hand.
After a moment, when everyone's vision has cleared, he stands several feet behind Talia, his back to hers. And releases the orb from his hand, a bit of electricity still crackling from his fingers as it moves up to hover next to him with the other orbs.
COMBATSYS: Lykaio successfully hits Talia with Vanishing Fist.
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Talia 0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0 Lykaio
When the first flash goes off, Talia quickly steps back into a defensive posture, taking up her firearm in both hands again as she tries to take aim. On realizing that she simply hasn't a good enough view to make a useful shot, she starts to kick off to leap to a safer position.. Unfortunately, she's misjudged the approach of her opponent amidst the brightness, and finds herself slammed into the gut with a shocking blow. Quickly recovering, she resumes leaping to put some distance between herself and Lykaio, dropping into a defensive crouch with the shotgun raised towards him. Instead of answering with another attack, she decides to spend a moment examining her options in more detail.
COMBATSYS: Talia focuses on her next action.
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Talia 0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0 Lykaio
Lykaio turns around as Talia leaps, then runs towards her as she drops into a defensive crouch. Another bright flash of light, and he skids into a sliding kick aimed at... right past her. His only real action is to tap an electrically enhanced hand on her arm as he moves past, assuming he gets that far. "Tell me when you've had enough, all right?"
COMBATSYS: Talia endures Lykaio's Jab Punch.
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Talia 0/-------/--=====|==-----\-------\0 Lykaio
When the flashing happens again, Talia tenses in preparation, one hand moving to the butt of her shotgun as she watches warily. More prepared this time, she starts to stand to move out of the way of the kick -- No. Feint. Turning to face Lykaio, instead of trying to avoid the quick poke, Talia claps one hand down onto the hand. No mitigation of damage at all, but she's also trying to keep him from getting away so easily, with her next move.
Talia throws the shotgun out to one side of Lykaio's head, then leans to the other side. After a moment of free flight, the shotgun jerks and swerves mid-air.. pulling the wire tight that Talia is still holding. A shift in stance and a tug on the wire should quickly bring the wire to wrap around Lykaio's neck with a great deal of pressure, if he can't do something to prevent it.
COMBATSYS: Talia successfully hits Lykaio with Flexibility EX.
- Power hit! -
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Talia 0/-------/=======|=======\=------\1 Lykaio
Lykaio looks at the shotgun as it flies, and seeing the wire, smiles and grabs one of the orbs. He shoves the orb against the thin strand of metal as it begins to spiral - which causes it to explode in his face. As he reels back, the wire wraps around his neck, exerting a great deal of pressure, which he doesn't really seem ready to deal with in any sense of the word. So, he falls to the ground, staring up at the sky with a rather dazed expression.
COMBATSYS: Lykaio takes no action.
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Talia 0/-------/=======|=======\=------\1 Lykaio
Before the shotgun completes its spiral of death, Talia snatches it out of the air, casually releasing the wire from the butt of the weapon. Stepping back from Lykaio, she puts just enough slack into the wire that he should be able to pull himself loose well before oxygen deprivation becomes life threatening. Dusting off her coat, she makes sure that Lykaio has recovered enough to hear her before speaking. This time, her tone isn't flat.. It's harsh, and derisive. "I use entirely mundane materials. I have no 'powers', yet I can casually kill you. Think long and hard before you conclude that you are better. LONG and hard. Talents are not to be confused with superiority." With that, Talia ejects an unused buckshot round from her shotgun, tossing it to Lykaio. A souvenir, perhaps.
Gesturing to the crowd to get out of her way, Talia begins walking down the street, intending to return to her previous task.
Lykaio blinks, staring up at Talia with a slightly dazed expression. And just watches her as she gives her speech, at least half his focus on regaining his breath. As she finishes, however, he starts to laugh, then grasps at his throat and tries to catch his breath again.
Log created by Talia, and last modified on 19:18:29 03/02/2007.